No question of targeting anyone through UCC

Days before Uttarakhand rolls out its Uniform Civil Code, becoming the first state in the country to do so, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the idea is not to target any person or community.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI: In an interview with Smriti Kak Ramachandran, he also added that the state will not spare any effort to identify and act against illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh. Edited excerpts:

The Uttarakhand cabinet has approved the Uniform Civil Code rules. By when will the common code be implemented? Do you have a date in mind?

It will be done at the earliest, within this month. UCC was a promise that the BJP had made to the people of Uttarakhand when we contested the assembly polls (in 2022) under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We had promised we would frame the laws when our government was formed.

We had also explained why we need UCC in Uttarakhand. It is a Dev Bhoomi (land of Gods), it is the land of Ganga, Yamuna, the four Dhams (holy places), and the Adi Kailash. The state also shares an international boundary with two countries (in the northwest with China and in the east with Nepal). Every family has someone or the other serving in the armed forces.

For the people of this state, no matter which community, religion or faith they are from, there should be a uniform set of laws. And for that we followed a procedure laid down in the Constitution. A committee was set up to prepare the draft, then a bill was made, which got the consent of the assembly and the President.

The UCC has kept Scheduled Tribes (ST) out of the ambit of the common laws applicable to the others. The Opposition and minority groups allege this is appeasement of a certain group.